April 10, 2014

The U.S. Navy plans to install a prototype of the first laser weapon on USS Ponce for at-sea testing in the Persian Gulf late this summer.

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) is a “revolutionary capability,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder. “It’s absolutely critical that we get this out to sea with our Sailors for these trials, because this very affordable technology is going to change… read more

April 10, 2014

Using a new gene-editing system based on bacterial proteins, MIT researchers have cured mice of a rare liver disorder caused by a single genetic mutation.

The findings, described in the March 30 issue of Nature Biotechnology, offer the first evidence that this gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR, can reverse disease symptoms in living animals. CRISPR, which offers an easy way to snip out mutated DNA and replace it with… read more

April 9, 2014

A new study of gamma-ray light from the center of our galaxy makes the strongest case to date that some of this emission may arise from dark matter, an unknown substance making up most of the material universe. Using publicly available data from NASA‘s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, independent scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), the Massachusetts Institute of… read more

Could substitute for expensive indium tin oxide in displays and solar cells, making them unbreakable

April 9, 2014

Rice University chemists have created a new material that adds carbon nanotubes as reinforcing bars (“rebar”) — mimicking how steel rebar is used in concrete — to make it easier to manipulate, while improving the electrical and mechanical qualities of both materials.

The technique should be of interest to electronics manufacturers, said Rice chemist James Tour. He suggested that by stacking a few layers, the… read more

April 9, 2014

Under stress from chemotherapy or radiation, some cancer cells dodge death by autophagy — eating a bit of themselves — allowing them to essentially sleep through treatment and later awaken as tougher, resistant disease.

April 9, 2014

Cybersecurity researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new security-software system called LatentGesture that continuously monitors how a user taps and swipes a mobile device. If the movements don’t match the owner’s patterns, the system recognizes the differences and if programmed, can lock the device.

In a recent Georgia Tech lab study, the system was nearly 98 percent accurate on a smartphone and 97 percent… read more

April 8, 2014

Reza Montazami, an Iowa State University assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is developing technology he calls “transient materials” or “transient electronics” — special degradable polymer composite materials designed to quickly and completely melt away when a trigger is activated.

A medical device, once its job is done, could harmlessly melt away inside a person’s body. Or, a military device could collect and send its data and then dissolve away,… read more

April 8, 2014

The U.S. Navy announced today (Apr. 7, 2014) that it plans to install and test a prototype electromagnetic railgun (EM railgun) aboard a joint high-speed vessel in fiscal year 2016 — the first time an electromagnetic railgun will be demonstrated at sea and a significant advance in naval combat.

April 7, 2014

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been put forward by a group of researchers as a potential building block for the next generation of low-cost electrical devices as an alternative to graphene.

Because of its impressive ability to convert light into electricity at with high efficiency, single layers of the semiconducting material have been used to fabricate a widely used device known as a photosensor, which is found in a range… read more

Better than fitness trackers on your wrist or clipped to your belt, the inventors say

April 7, 2014

Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University have developed soft, thin stick-on patches that stretch and move with the skin, using commercially available, off-the-shelf chip-based electronics for sophisticated wireless health monitoring.

The patches stick to the skin like a temporary tattoo and incorporate a unique microfluidic construction, with wires folded like origami to allow the patch to bend and flex without being constrained by the… read more

April 7, 2014

University of Central Florida (UCF) scientists have created the first large-area metamaterial (cloaking material) for the visible-light spectral range*.

Controlling and bending light around an object so it appears invisible to the naked eye is the theory behind fictional invisibility cloaks. But so far, cloaking has been mainly limited to the microwave region or to micron-scale (millionths of a meter) objects in the visible-light region.

April 4, 2014

Researchers in Washington State University’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have developed a method to allow a computer to give advice and teach skills to another computer in a way that mimics how a real teacher and student might interact.

The paper by Matthew E. Taylor, WSU’s Allred Distinguished Professor in Artificial Intelligence, was published online in the journal Connection Science.